We heard sirens and that always sends the neighbor’s dogs off in a beautiful choral ~AaaOoo-RoooOOo~ howl. Then a chopper overhead – so we went out onto the deck. It was the news chopper. Something’s up! Or in this case down. We walked out onto the street where it curves around, out of our direct view and saw some local action down on the runway below. It’s been very gusty today with temperature swings in the 40-degree range the last few days. Today it was clear and bright and hot and in the high 80’s – yesterday was overcast and gloomy and mid 60’s at best. Snow in Tahoe last night. Sierra weather is unpredictable.
Evidently a gust of wind caught the tail section as he was taxing home to the Airpark and flipped the Cessna. The 78-year old pilot walked away, more embarrassed than anything else, thankfully.
Ground Loop
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NCB is right… sigh
Yeh, Billy used to fly bush aircraft in Alaska…
The control surfaces still work, even when you’re on the ground. But you have to position them correctly. I wasn’t there, but I’d bet the pilot was taxiing too fast, with their hands off the controls.
Another perfectly good airplane destroyed by the negligence of its human operator.
All I know is we get a lot of crosswinds and weird stuff. The pilot said it went over on the right wingtip and drove the prop into the ground before flipping.